United States President Donald Trump told ABC News on Wednesday that “it is possible there will be some” deaths, as the country is reopening its economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s possible there will be some [deaths] because you won’t be locked into an apartment or a house or whatever it is,” Trump told ABC News. “But at the same time, we’re going to practice social distancing, we’re going to be washing hands, we’re going to be doing a lot of the things that we’ve learned to do over the last period of time.”

However, Trump refused to wear a mask even while visiting the Honeywell factory in Phoenix, Arizona, AFP reported. The Honeywell factory produces masks worn by medical staff. According to the US government recommendations and their own company rules, the audience at the factory sat with masks. There was also a sign that displayed: “Please wear your mask at all times.”

Earlier in April, Trump had said, “I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don’t know, suggesting a mask would be unpresidential,” AFP reported. “Somehow, I don’t see it for myself.”

Meanwhile, praising the Honeywell workers, Trump said that it’s time to look ahead. “I want to be a cheerleader,” he added. While Trump’s November reelection campaign is reeling from the shutdown, this is first major trip since the lockdown was put in place.

The United States is the country worst hit by the virus so far, with over 71,078 Covid-19 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

Last week, Vice President Mike Pence had caused a stir after he was photographed without a mask during his visit to the famous Mayo Clinic hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. The hospital requires every visitor to wear a mask.

However, later, Pence publicly admitted that he was wrong. “I didn’t think it was necessary, but I should have worn a mask.”

The White House claimed that since top officials and guests are frequently tested for Covid-19, they “generally do not need to follow the guidance”.

No evidence to support Trump’s ‘speculative’ claims on virus: WHO

Meanwhile, for weeks, Trump has blamed China for the coronavirus crisis. Last week, he threatened China with new tariffs, claiming that he had seen evidence linking a Wuhan lab to the infection.

However, the World Health Organization has said that Washington has not provided any evidence to support the US president’s “speculative” claims, AFP reported.

“We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus, so from our perspective, this remains speculative,” WHO Emergencies Director Michael Ryan said.

Scientists believe the virus jumped from animals to humans. It emerged in China late last year, possibly from a market in Wuhan that sold exotic animals.

But Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci told National Geographic that “the best evidence shows the virus behind the pandemic was not made in a lab in China”.

“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated … Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,” Fauci told National Geographic.

The report added that “based on the scientific evidence, Fauci did not entertain an alternate theory, that says someone found the coronavirus in the wild, brought it to a lab, and then it accidentally escaped”.